THE STORY – CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth fearlessly captures footage of war zones. After receiving catastrophic injuries in the crosshairs of battle, she returns to work with more courage than ever.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Lucy Lawless (Director/Writer), Whetham Allpress, Tom Blackwell & Matthew Metcalfe (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 85 minutes
Biographical documentaries can preserve their subject for all time, calcifying their achievements in what can easily be considered the definitive recounting of their life. “Never Look Away” seeks to do just that. Lucy Lawless, most famous for playing the lead role in the TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess,” directs this look at the tumultuous life (both professional and personal) of photojournalist and wartime camerawoman Margaret Moth. It’s a creatively told bio-doc that compellingly tells the story of an important figure with whom the audience is likely unfamiliar. Yet, it somehow feels incomplete despite its tight focus on Moth.
Smartly, the film doesn’t tell a cradle-to-grave story of the late Moth. Instead, it jumps in with an anecdote accurately painting a picture of her turbulent, messy, energized life. The first interviewee is Jeff, who was her boyfriend when she was in her 30s, and he was still in high school. From there, Lawless explores Moth’s wartime camerawork in the 90s while interweaving stories of her personal life. It’s not hard to make a connection between the figuratively explosive details of her romantic and family life and the literally explosive settings in which she conducted her work. Lawless doesn’t heavily underline these parallels but instead subtly lets her interview subjects make such observations. Most of the film comprises talking head-style testimonies from Moth’s coworkers and lovers, with archival footage used to visualize the terrifying, violent environments to which Moth was drawn. In addition, striking animated moments and a metaphoric depiction of Moth by a modern dancer invigorate the documentary and keep it from feeling standard or rote.
Interestingly, there isn’t much footage of Moth herself speaking, especially about her work. Instead, her thoughts on her career are told second-hand by her colleagues and friends who heard them from her. Most of the instances showing Moth communicating occur after a jaw-shattering sniper shot in war-torn Sarajevo that compromised her ability to speak. It makes sense that someone who placed themselves pointedly behind cameras for a living wouldn’t necessarily be captured on camera herself. Still, it does make Moth feel more like a projection of those being interviewed rather than a fully fleshed-out individual.
Similarly, the film takes the odd approach of never fully interrogating Moth as a tempestuous, messy being capable of both bringing joy to and inflicting hurt upon those around her. Instead, “Never Look Away” is content to merely let its interviewees make mention of Moth’s more unkind decisions and habits, such as her desire for openness in her relationships in a non-equitable manner (according to one of her lovers, she expected freedom for herself but wanted monogamy from others). While it opens the film, the detail about her dating a high school boy and bringing him into her chaotic, drug-filled life is strangely hurried past and not explored.
Lawless crafts a dynamic story of one complicated woman making her way through a male-dominated field in “Never Look Away.” Although it zeroes in on Moth, it can’t help but feel strangely incomplete. Specifically, the way the film wraps up with little attention paid to the cancer that would eventually kill her feels indicative of the film’s general methodology. It captures her life well, but perhaps not entirely, which may be appropriate for someone as unwilling to be boxed in and categorized as Moth, but it can’t help but feel like something is missing.
